Original air date: November 10, 1967
Captain’s Log, Stardate
SYNOPSIS
While returning to the Enterprise aboard the shuttlecraft, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a seriously ill Federation diplomat find themselves kidnapped by an energized cloud.
CANON CONTEXT
RECAP
Ok, I have SO much I want to say about this episode but I’m going to try and hold my tongue about it. What I will say is I have an “expose” if you will, about Kirk titled “How Captain Kirk Is Bad For the Federation” and will be an upcoming Supplemental. Oh it will be a hot take, for sure. But try as I might I’m going to move past this and get onto the actual episode.
Kirk, Spock, and Bones are on their spacecraft, Galileo, ferrying a female commander who contracted some disease that could only be found in 1 in a billion! Wow! So, of course she didn’t receive the necessary vaccine against that disease that will kill her rapidly if she isn’t taken to the Enterprise to receive the proper treatment. On the way two things happen:
We discover just how annoying this commander is with her ungrateful attitude.
A thing appears out of nowhere in forces their ship of course towards a planet that appears uninhabited.
We soon discover there is at least one man down on this planet.
He seems harmless enough but looks can often be deceiving as Kirk discovers this guy looks awfully familiar. Only problem is he has little time for pleasantries with Cochrane. He has to get Commander Hedford to the Enterprise to save her life.
Only problem is when he discovers Cochrane is a man who did the first warp 150 years ago and should be dead. Though Spock points out his body was never found. Turns out he was brought to this planet by “The Companion” as he calls it and given eternal life. That came with a price of boredom and loneliness. To fix that the Companion brought this spacecraft to him.
While Kirk worries about getting free from this planet the commander is first freaking out at the idea of being a “pet” to the Companion? It seemed a bit too extreme, but maybe not as Cochrane makes a similar “this is disgusting” response when they point out that clearly he and the Companion are in a “relationship” whether he likes it or not.
I mean, just look at how they communicate with each other.
Enough said my dude.
Okay, now, back on the Enterprise we have Scotty (in charge) and Uhura both giving us their best facial expressions and catchy phrases and I’m here for it.
Kirk finally realizing he can’t defeat the Companion when they are able to hear it speak and it sounds like a woman, so that means he has an idea of how to deal with her. Because we all know what a sentient female voiced form would want, love and to be love and to feel love. I’m going to try not to think about a Celine Dion song and I welcome you to not do the same…
The obvious solution here, which I assumed was how this episode would end just not how they did it but Cochrane and Hedford end up together. The Companion realizes the only way for her to be with Cochrane (who she loves) is to become human and give up her powers. She inhabits Hedford’s body, thereby healing her from the killer disease she had, which I question how she managed doing that if by entering her body she lost her powers. But the point of Star Trek is not to over analyze the details to that extent so we’ll overlook that.
At the end of the day, love is in the air when Cochrane decides to stay with the Companion aka Hedford and live out their life together on this planet. How sweet.
DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
Zefram Cochrane: I could even offer you a hot bath.
Nancy Hedford: [dripping with sarcasm] How perceptive of you to notice that I needed one.
